Inscribing the Cultural Revolution in the Hong Kong Everyday: Lü Da, Wen Wei Po and the Question of Hong Kong Literary History

Abstract

This article focuses on the influence of the Cultural Revolution on Hong Kong literature in the British colonial days. In particular, I examine the role played by a forgotten Hong Kong writer Lü Da, Li Yang’s nom de plume. Lü was one of the authors of Hong Kong Wen Wei Po’s “Trio Opusculum” (Sanren xiaopin) column, which, among other things, disseminated and repurposed Cultural Revolution literary and cultural products in Hong Kong between 1966 and 1967. Through scrutinizing Lü Da’s writings in this column and the intertextual relationship between the column with other pages of the newspaper, my article argues that Lü Da’s skilful techniques in propagating national literary and cultural products into the everyday local situations are shown in three styles: retelling, re-appropriation and re-contextualization. Furthermore, the Cultural Revolution’s influence on Lü Da’s column writing raises questions about the historiography of Hong Kong literary history, specifically in relation to the repressed voice of the left-wing during the 1960s and 1970s.